ABSTRACT
Sibling relationships are an integral part of the oedipal configuration. Young child observation involves observing a young child, either in the child's home or in a nursery setting. In the observations and seminars, it is likely that either babies will have older siblings or that young children will have or will be anticipating the arrival of a younger sibling. For the elder child, being dethroned is painful, as letting go of the privileged life of the nursing infant entails a new struggle with reality. Interest in the new, an appetite for getting to know something fresh, is outweighed by a sense that new ideas are unfriendly rivals to old beliefs and must be stifled or thrown out. It is obvious, too, that ambivalence to new babies of the conscious and unconscious imagination affects relationships with other children, who carry the symbolic meaning of siblings.
